As a single, working mother, Linda barely had time for her son. So one day, when her little boy very excitedly shared he had lost his tooth and would hide it under his pillow for the tooth fairy to leave him money in exchange, Linda couldn’t break his heart. She goes to his room to leave him money and is surprised to find several bills already tucked under his pillow.
Linda was not cut out to become a housewife, and she would never become one, no matter how much her husband pressured her. So even after years of marriage and two lovely children, she never compromised on her career.
Linda, or Mrs. Winterbottom to her peers, worked her butt off, undertook all those overtime hours, and did everything she could to prove herself worthy of the promotions and big paychecks her husband thought only men deserved.
Mr. Winterbottom was fed up with his married life and his wife, who was far too ambitious for his liking and the needs of their family. Darren was sick of stepping in whenever Linda left for an important meeting or returned home late. He wanted her to be there for him and their children, but Linda had other plans..
“I’ll be away for a conference later this week. I guess you’ll have to return early from work to look after the kids,” Linda told Darren, sitting at the dinner table. She’d already tucked the kids in their beds.
“I think you should let it go this time,” Darren said, reaching for the salad. “The kids need you. And I’m working on a big project, which requires me to work longer hours. If I handle it well, I might get a promotion.”
“I didn’t ask you if I should go or not, Darren,” Linda flatly said, slicing her steak. “My work is equally important, so we’ll have to figure a way out.”
“A way out?” he asked furiously, dropping his fork. “You want to hire a nanny, don’t you? And entrust our children’s care to a stranger?”
Linda stopped eating. “You have a better idea?”
Darren lost his calm and stood up, pushing his chair back. “Why are you so arrogant, Linda? Will that bloody conference play such a pivotal role in your career that you’ll never have to worry about money again? No, right? So you’re staying home!”
“Excuse me?” she retorted. “Darren, you don’t get to tell me what to do and what not to do! I’m going, and that’s final!”
“What the—”
“And,” she added, rising to her feet. “I’ll be back after a week, for your information!”
Linda disappeared into the kitchen with her plate, and Darren was furious. He had always wanted Linda to become a housewife and focus on their family, but Linda’s only focus had always been her career and ambitions.
While Darren saw it as his wife’s arrogance, for her, it was something she wanted to do for her kids. Linda came from a humble background. She had seen some really harsh and brutal days in life while working her way through high school and college before landing a job in a private firm.
So she wanted to make so much money that her kids would never miss out on anything. Darren never understood that and insisted it was a man’s role to provide. So over time, Linda and Darren often argued about who deserved to work and who should’ve stayed home.
Things escalated so terribly that after Linda returned from her conference, Darren decided to divorce her. Linda was hurt and would have tried to convince Darren otherwise, but she knew he’d ask her to give up her career, which she didn’t want to.
For illustration purposes only. | Source: Pexels
So Linda and Darren sat the kids down one day and told them they were parting ways.
“But why are we doing this? I mean, you guys don’t hate each other, do you?” their daughter asked. Hollie was a teenager, unlike her younger brother Max, and she wanted to know the real reason why their parents were splitting up.
Linda explained to Hollie that things were not working out between her and Darren the way she’d thought they would, so they decided it was best to separate.
Hollie sighed and rolled her eyes. “OK, whatever. But I’m staying with Dad. He’s cool. And honestly, Mom, it’s all your fault. You’re this too-much-into-work woman, so yeah, Dad’s right. You’re never there for us.”
Linda’s heart dropped. How long had Hollie hated her for being a working mother? “And what about you, Max?” asked Linda. “Do you also want to stay with Daddy?”
“Umm, I—”
“He’s coming with us, Mom!” Hollie cut Max off. “He’s too young to know what’s best for him!”
“Let him talk, Hollie!” Linda yelled.
“No! He won’t!” Hollie cried. “I won’t let you tear our family apart! You’ve already done us enough harm, Mom! I wanted a complete family! But look what you’re doing! You’re making us choose between you and Dad! All because of your stupid job!”
“DON’T FORGET YOU’RE TALKING TO YOUR MOTHER, HOLLIE!”
“Whatever, Mom! Max will stay with me!”
Linda closed her eyes and let the hatred in her daughter’s heart sink in. She had never thought she’d argue with Hollie like that, but she couldn’t just let her son go. She had already lost her daughter.
“Well,” Linda said after a pause. “Let the court decide that. I’ll fight for Max’s custody, but you, Hollie—you can just go to your Dad’s since you hate me!”
A few weeks later, Darren and Linda appeared in the family court with their children, and Judge Peterson gave Max’s custody to Linda after talking to the children in the absence of their parents. As Hollie wanted, she would stay with Darren.
Months passed. Linda got over the divorce by throwing herself into work, and since she wasn’t always home, she hired a nanny for Max. Joyce was a sweet 50-something woman who claimed to have three grandchildren and adored kids, so Linda hired her right away after reviewing her profile.
However, after some time, Linda began to feel that her life was not going as she had hoped. She’d always wanted to make decisions without Darren’s interference and dedicate all her time to her job. But she had started missing her family now.
Linda yearned for Darren’s warm hugs on nights she felt overwhelmed, and she missed her daughter’s tantrums on weekends. Linda could hardly share anything about her life with Max as he was too young. But with Darren and Hollie, she could share so much to put her heart at ease.
When more time passed with nobody but Max and Joyce in the house, Linda just began hating everything. She was tired of her monotonous schedule—going to work in the mornings and returning home late to work more. The weekends, too, were spent working. She just wasn’t happy or living her life!
Linda had thought hiring Joyce would cover up for Darren’s presence as he looked after the house chores while she was away. But it didn’t cover up for her ex-husband’s presence. Linda felt so empty and lonely that she wondered if she’d done the right thing by letting her husband and daughter go.
One day, Linda returned home late from work. She dropped the car keys on the living room table and sank onto the couch. As she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, she heard frantic footsteps on the stairs leading to Max’s room.
Seconds later, Max’s voice appeared. “Mommy! Mommy! I got to show you something!”
Linda was startled awake as Max jumped on the couch beside her. “Oh, darling!” she cried. “You scared me!”
“Mommy, see!” Max said, smiling broadly and revealing his missing tooth. He looked so funny with his front tooth gone that Linda burst out laughing.
“Oh!” she laughed. “You look… I mean, oh God, Max! Your tooth…”
“Mommy, I’ll keep it under my pillow because the tooth fairy will give me money!” he said, showing her the tooth in his tiny palms.
“But for that, aren’t you supposed to be in your bed? Where’s Joyce?”
“I was going to sleep, Mommy. I told Joyce I would show you the teeth and be back.”
“OK!” Linda said. “Now that you’ve shown it to me, how about you hurry up and get back to bed? Mommy’s a little tired too.”
“OK, Mommy! Good night!” Max said as he dashed upstairs to his room.
After Max left, Linda sank back into the couch and closed her eyes again. She even chuckled at Max’s innocence that a tooth fairy would leave him money.
“Well, I guess I’ll have to become the tooth fairy tonight,” she told herself. “At least Max is happy to stay with me. I can’t break his heart…”
That night, Linda decided to leave some money under her son’s pillow. She had dinner, then got busy working on her laptop and waited until Max was asleep so she could leave the money in his room.
But Linda was so tired that night that she dozed off on the couch. When she woke up, she saw it was past midnight. Linda thought it wasn’t too late to leave the money, so she went to Max’s room. Approaching his bed, Linda was shocked to find money under his pillow!
“Is my mind playing tricks on me?” she wondered as she knelt by Max’s side. She plucked the bills jutting out from his pillow and counted them carefully.
$200!
“Who would keep so much money here? Was it Joyce? Oh, this woman!”
Linda guessed it was the nanny who had kept the money under Max’s pillow. She didn’t want the poor older woman to give so much money to Max, so she went to Joyce’s room to return it and found the older woman awake.
“Joyce, you should take it back. It’s alright,” she said. “I know Max told you about the tooth fairy and money thing, but it’s fine. I’ll take care of it.”
Joyce was confused. “Mrs. Winterbottom, I…I didn’t keep any money there!”
“You didn’t?” Linda asked. “Oh, Joyce, tell me you’re lying because I found $200! And it’s not a small amount. Please take it back.”
Joyce assured Linda she wasn’t the one who had kept the money. Linda went back to Max’s room and woke him up. Then she looked beneath his pillow and found his tooth missing!
“Max?” she asked. “Did someone come into your room? Or did you tell anyone about your tooth, um, other than Joyce and me?”
Rubbing his eyes, the little boy shook his head. “No, Mommy, but,” he said, “I told Daddy. Did the tooth fairy come?”
Max lifted his pillow excitedly and frowned when he didn’t find any money there. “Did she not give me money, Mommy?” he asked sadly, noticing no cash under his pillow.
“Well, um,” Linda stammered. “She—she did come with the money, and I dropped it in your piggy bank!”
“Really?” Max asked happily. “Thank you, Mommy!”
***
Max went back to sleep, and Linda stormed into the living room, enraged. She assumed Darren had sneaked in via Max’s bedroom window to leave the money and pretend to be a better parent than she was! She immediately called him, but he said he was at work and had returned home just an hour ago.
“Don’t you dare lie, Darren!” she said. “I know it was you!”
“I don’t need to lie to you, Linda! I could’ve just come over if I wanted to give Max the money!”
Darren was right. He had visitation rights, so he could come to see Max. Linda was now worried a stranger had sneaked into their house. So she began reading blogs online on what to do in such scenarios. Some websites suggested installing CCTVs everywhere, but that would be time-consuming.
So when Linda came across an alarm that sounded like a siren when an intruder broke in via the house’s doors and windows, she bought it right away. The next day, she installed it in all rooms and waited for the intruder to be caught red-handed.
But for days, everything was calm. She didn’t find anything odd happening around her house. Then weeks later, Max told her he’d lost another tooth! Linda again suspected it was none other than Darren who had left the money the last time. Maybe he was alert after her phone call. So she asked Max to call him about the broken tooth. And Max did.
Linda was ready that she would catch Darren in the act. She tried not to fall asleep that night with all her might, and at one point, the alarm went off! Linda heard the siren’s noise from Max’s room and dashed upstairs immediately, only to be shocked! It was not her ex-husband who had broken into their son’s room.
For illustration purposes only. | Source: Unsplash
It was Hollie.
“What a creepy thing!” she screamed over the noise. “Turn it off, Mom!”
“What are you doing here?” Linda asked, switching off the alarm. Max was startled awake by the noise and sat confused on his bed. “Hollie? What are you doing here?”
“Mom! Out to the living room! Now! We need to talk!”
Hollie left Max’s room, and Linda followed her outside. “Go to sleep, baby,” Linda told Max before leaving.
“So it was you who left the money for Max?” Linda asked.
“Yeah,” Hollie confirmed. “And why wouldn’t I, Mom? I love him and miss him! Mom, I know you don’t care about his happiness! When I was Max’s age, you constantly made me read all those science and math books because you said I’d grow up smart and everything.
“But Mom, I grew up miserable, depressed, and never had a happy childhood! Why? Because you and Dad were constantly arguing or working! And I’d be stuck with those boring books! I didn’t want Max to go through the same, so I read him fairy tales, as a child his age should!
“I know I can’t get all that money for him like you, Mom! But I can give my brother a happy childhood. I didn’t want him to be upset. If he didn’t find any money, he would be. So I left that money for him.”
“Where did you get so much, though?”
“I saved up. My pocket money.”
Linda was hurt but mainly embarrassed by her daughter’s words. She was working to provide her children with the best of everything. She’d never intended to drive her kids apart, but in her haste to further her career, she had done so.
Linda had been a terrible mother who had provided her children with money but not love.
Linda noticed Max was standing on the stairs, listening to everything. “So Santa Claus and the fairies are not real?” he asked in tears.
Hollie walked over to Max and scooped him up. “Oh, no, little champ, they are! I told Mom that I left Max money because I wanted the tooth fairy to know that I love my brother just as much as the fairy loves children with broken teeth!”
“Really? I thought they were not real!”
Max hugged his sister in tears, and witnessing that moment made Linda realize nothing mattered more than her children’s happiness. So on Hollie’s birthday, Linda threw her a party and promised to do her best to become a better mother.
“I can’t go back in time and fix your childhood, Hollie,” she said. “But I can try to make things better for us in the future.”
While Hollie said she’d need some time to accept her, Darren was relieved to see Linda soften for the sake of their children. As everyone left after the party, Linda sank onto the couch beside Darren, her eyes getting heavy.
Linda was so exhausted by the day’s end that she dozed off on Darren’s shoulder. When she awoke, the sun was up in the sky. Linda noticed the sun’s rays gently caressing Darren’s face and felt like she was falling in love with her ex-husband all over again.
Linda kissed Darren softly on his cheeks and promised herself that she’d bring their family back together. A week later, Darren announced he had bagged the big promotion, so Linda quit her job and became a stay-at-home mom. And not just that! Linda and Darren decided to tie the knot again, this time with special guests—Hollie graced the ceremony as the flower girl, and Max was the most adorable best man.
What can we learn from this story?
- No amount of money can ever compare to the love and warmth of a family. Hollie’s love for Max eventually makes Linda realize that no amount of money would ever be as valuable as her family, and she decides to prioritize her family in her life.
- Your children should always be your priority. Linda realizes she’s been so preoccupied with work that she has missed out on her children’s love and decides to make amends.
This piece is inspired by stories from the everyday lives of our readers and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only.
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